Editor's note: This is the sixth in a series breaking down the Nuggets' players this past season. Coming Saturday: Wilson Chandler.

The other Nuggets player to undergo an extreme makeover, along with Kenneth Faried, was center Timofey Mozgov. His season was so good, coach Brian Shaw called him a "diamond in the rough" by its end. His season was so good, other teams called the Nuggets, looking to pry him off the roster via trade. His season was so good, many were left wondering: Why couldn't this guy get on the court before?

Mozgov began the 2013-14 season as a backup center with few expectations, but after starter JaVale McGee went down with a stress fracture five games in, Mozgov took advantage of having more playing time and ended the season as the front-runner to be a starter next season. He had career-high averages in points (9.4), rebounds (6.4) and blocked shots (1.2). He shot 52.3 percent from the field and 75.4 percent from the free-throw line.

His ability, and willingness, to run the court is what stood out most on game tape. Time and time again he ran by slow-footed opponents and earned himself a lot of early post-up opportunities, which he was able to convert. He averaged 1.44 points per possession in transition, ranking 10th in the NBA, according to Synergy Sports, and shot 75.9 percent (41-of-54) in those situations, which, save for five attempts, were all layups and dunks.

Advertisement

But the bulk of his offense came from three areas: post-ups, cuts and in pick-and-roll situations. In the half court, he would often set a screen and move, receive a pass, move it and set another screen. He was deft at ducking in from the weakside to get deep position and a good seal in the post. Mozgov was rarely seen standing still.

A number of things could happen when Mozgov had the ball. First, he could be counted on to turn over his right shoulder to take a left-handed hook almost as often as Kenneth Faried could be counted on to take a right-handed hook. But here's the catch: Mozgov is right-handed and shoots right-handed. And yet he was much more comfortable taking that left-handed hook and would pass up opportunities to turn to his right hand in favor of more difficult attempts with his left pretty regularly.

Second, he generally was a good "feel" player. He was more than willing to roll in pick-and-roll situations, diving to the rim for dunks and layups, but understood when popping out was the correct play. And instead of jacking up any jump shot, Mozgov opted to get the ball back into the hands of a ball handler if things didn't look right. With a green light from Shaw, Mozgov started taking jump shots all the way out to the three-point line by the end of the 2013-14 campaign. But in a lost season we'll forgive him for that. He did, however, make four from beyond the arc.

Defensively, Mozgov was one of the Nuggets' best rim protectors. He nearly mastered the NBA's verticality rule, which for a 7-footer makes it almost impossible to get a shot over when they jump up in the air with arms straight up. Mozgov combined that with the ability to block a shot. His 100 blocked shots ranked 16th in the NBA, and among players who averaged at least 20 minutes per game in a minimum of 50 games, Mozgov's opponent field-goal percentage at the rim (.469) was a tenth of a percentage point more than Chicago's Joakim Noah, the NBA's defensive player of the year.

Mozgov has good feet. He can get out to a shooter and can move laterally with driving offensive players. That helped immensely last season. He contested shots well, and was among the most disciplined Nuggets in defending the pick-and-roll, though he would zone out and be late out to the shooter at times. Spotty overall pick-and-roll coverage by the team also didn't help him other times. But he was most consistent at doing what the coaching staff asked him to do on the defensive end.

Mozgov's two biggest areas of improvement are strength and focus. Lower body strength is a glaring need, and it showed often in his inability to back defenders down on post-ups, and, conversely, hold off big men who were backing him down on their post-ups. The lack of strength caused him to have to rely more on finesse with his post moves instead of being able to ride a defender to the rim, turn, drop step and power up for a dunk. This also showed in his struggle to finish through contact, where strong legs and shoulders help players power through it.

His lack of focus showed up most with turnovers. He committed 122 turnovers during the season, and 61 were bad-pass turnovers or lost-ball turnovers (including dropped passes). His passing turnovers were almost always a result of him being nonchalant with his looks, trying cross-court tosses past multiple defenders — which were stolen — or just generally being too fast instead of taking his time to make a good, crisp pass. Teammates were frustrated at his tendency to drop passes, but he improved his hands as the season moved along and those resulted in just seven of his 122 total turnovers.

Mozgov will enter the fall with the starting center job in his grasp, and he's earned it. A productive summer will help to ensure it's his.

Missy Franklin, Jenny Simpson, Adeline Gray and three other Colorado women could be big players at the 2016 Rio OlympicsWhen people ask Missy Franklin for her thoughts about the Summer Olympics that will begin a year from Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro, she hangs a warning label on her answer.